Tags or Labels

[Vikram Achanta]

Hi,

Is there any way I can add tags or labels to each record?

Without that is using a normal text field for the same. If I use a text field, then data sorting will be complex when I export the records to excel.

Regards

Vikram Achanta

[Brendan]

Hi Vikram,

I replied to your question via your email already. Not sure if you received it.

Just use a Pick List with some values in them (your tags). You can even give the values different colours.

I’m not sure what you mean by using a text field would complicate the exporting though.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Vikram Achanta]

Dear Brendan,

Thanks. Let me tell you what I’m trying to use Tap Forms for. I am a quiz master – hosting trivia nights as such, and have a large bank of questions. These are text, visual and audio / video. I guess I can store at least the text and visual questions in Tap Forms.

I would like to enter each question in a separate form.

For each question I enter for e.g.

Dublin is home to 4 nobel laureates. Name all 4.

WB Yeats, GB Shaw, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney

I would like to assign a tag or a label or maybe multiple tags..so that I can easily find all like questions. So for the above one, I would like to tag the form with 1. Books and 2. Ireland and 3. TLR (as being the place where I first asked the question).

I tried to use Pick List, but it seems to be assigning the same label to every form.

Hope my requirement is clear and you can assist.

I would not like to use text fields for this as I may have upto 10 tags and I would then need to ensure that specific field number is used for a specific tag every time, so that when I export the data to excel, I can easily sort the same.

Regards

Vikram

[Brendan]

Hi Vikram,

I don’t think having a separate form is the right idea for each question. I think a single form with one structure and multiple records, each record representing a different question is the way to go. Or perhaps you meant to say record but said form instead.

Well, that’s the sort of thing that Pick Lists are good at. You can make a Pick List a multi-valued one so that you can assign different values to the same field. So create a Pick List with all the possible tags, set it to multi-valued, then assign multiple values to your field in a particular record. That along with Saved Searches will help you to filter your records. So you could have a Saved Search that filters on say “Tag: Ireland” (I’m half Irish by the way!), then another that says “Tag: Books”. And if you had records which were tagged as both Ireland and Books, then those records would appear in each Saved Search filtered list.

Thanks!

Brendan

[Vikram Achanta]

Dear Brendan,

Thanks a lot for the support and the patience.

As suggested I created a multi-value Pick List with about 10 tags, each with a different colour.

In each record (yes, not form!), this pick list then shows up as a new field from which I can select the Tags I wish for that record. Which is great.

However when I then export the records to excel, the tag fields are all in a single cell, making the sheet hard to sort on individual tags. Any way to solve this?

My option is I assume that I search for a Tag and then export only those records.

Regards

Vikram Achanta

[Cliff Tarrance]

Here’s an idea:

1) After you export to Excel, copy the column containing the tags.

2) Paste into TextWrangler or other capable text editor

3) Do a Replace All operation on the text, changing every occurrence of “, ” to “\t” (at least in TextWrangler, “\t” is how you designate the tab character)

4) Add a column in Excel, then copy all the lines from TextWrangler and paste into the new column.

5) This should create additional columns as needed for multiple tags on a line.

6) Inspect the results! If it looks good, you can delete the original column that contains multiple tags in a cell.

I hope that helps.

Cliff

[Brendan]

Good suggestion Cliff.

I guess to get proper exporting you would need to have multiple tag fields. Tag 1, Tag 2, Tag 3, etc. Then use a single-select Pick List for each field. Then when you export, the data will be split up for you into separate columns.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Vikram Achanta]

Thanks Cliff, Brendan,

I think it might be best if I just did a search for records linked to a certain tag and then exported those records.

Brendan – you might like to consider tags as a feature in version upgrades.

One last question (or maybe 2!) – as i am entering data in the trial version, when I choose to buy the software, will that data carry forward into the version I buy? And secondly for running the software on my ipad, what do I need to do?

Regards

Vikram

[Brendan]

Hi Vikram,

You can either choose to buy from the Mac App Store, or just use the In-App purchase to buy. The price is the same. One benefit of the direct download version is you get updates more quickly. One benefit of the Mac App Store is support for iCloud Drive for syncing. The direct download version has Dropbox for syncing.

Yes, your data will carry over no matter which version you decide to purchase.

For the iPad version you need Tap Forms HD ($8.99 USD). For the iPhone it’s the regular Tap Forms version for iPhone. Also $8.99 USD.

Thanks!

Brendan

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